'Aston Villa doctor saved my life' - England international Missy Bo Kearns opens up on devastating miscarriage and reveals 'shock' sepsis diagnosis

It was back on March 1 that Kearns and her boyfriend Liam Walsh, the Luton Town midfielder, revealed that they were expecting their first child in a heart-warming social media post. It has been a long time since an England international has given birth to a child and then returned to playing, with Kearns clearly excited about the prospect of balancing motherhood with football. However, it was only a few weeks later that the 25-year-old took to social media again to announce the devastating news that she had lost the baby.

"With very heavy hearts, we want to share that we’ve lost our baby during pregnancy," she wrote. "The past weeks have been filled with a kind of sadness that’s hard to explain, and we’re still trying to come to terms with it all. Right now, we’re focusing on recovering and supporting each other through this. We truly appreciate the love and support around us more than we can say."

Kearns has now opened up further on those difficult weeks, revealing in an interview with ITV that she had a "septic miscarriage". The midfielder had "the shivers" one day, which she thought "was just like a pregnancy symptom". However, when the club doctor, Jodie Blackadder-Weinstein, checked her temperature and it was 42 degrees celsius, she told her to call her boyfriend immediately and go to the hospital.

"We went to the hospital and that's when we found out that straight away, we had lost the baby and that I'd got sepsis," Kearns explained. "It was difficult, like it was a shock, because I'd literally been doing pilates and gym an hour before and my whole life just changed like that."

Kearns could not be more grateful for the intervention of Blackadder-Weinstein, admitting that she probably saved her life. "I'm so thankful for the doctors here at Villa because if I was at home that day, and I probably would have rung my mum saying, ‘Oh, I feel a bit like flu-ish symptoms’, everyone would just say, ‘Have a sleep’, or whatnot, and Jodie made me go to the hospital.

"They probably saved my life because I had sepsis and while having that, I wasn't even thinking about the sepsis. It was, ‘I've lost my child’."

Kearns wants to share her story in the hope that it will help others. "Is there something I’ve done? Is there something I didn't? But it's not and I hope people out there who've been through it know that it's what's meant to be, will be, and it happens for a reason, even though it's so hard to come to terms with that," she said, reflecting on her process of trying to understand what happened.

"There's nothing that you can do to stop it or prevent it. That's one message that I'd like to get out there, because I can tell you now a lot of people have probably had thoughts that I've had, or what my partner might have had, like, 'Did we not check something? Or were we not clear on something?' But there's literally nothing you can do.

“I think that's the hardest thing because you overthink. Well, I personally overthink a lot, and I think a lot of women definitely do. You actually feel like you're the only person it's ever happened to. But really it's so common and that's why I think it's important that the message is out there, don't feel alone and stuff, because it's happened to so many people.”

Kearns is now in the process of doing her return-to-play protocol, albeit while also dealing with some devastating grief. She admitted there are days where she feels "good" but days where she feels "upset" as she tries to process everything. "It just comes and goes in waves," she added.

"I do know that being back in football, it's my happy place. I'm here now and I'm excited to be here and to keep trying to build and build and get myself right ready for next season. I want to come back in pre-season and be back to the Missy Bo everyone knows, who's smiling, happy, winding people up non-stop.

"It's a big year next year. My plan while I was pregnant was to make the World Cup squad and that's not changed, so the next few months is [about] getting myself, physically, mentally strong, ready for a big season, and to try and make the World Cup squad and also have a positive full season for Villa. I'm just excited.

“I've realised there's more to life than football, but now I'm going to enjoy every minute of football like it's my last, because it could have been.”